"The True end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction & he, who writes honestly is no more enemy to the offender, than the physician to the patient, when he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate disease" -- John Dryden

Friday, April 30, 2010

Yet another shallow SMOKE screen

As we sit here on the eve of what we all know will be new set of higher taxes in the form of something called the HENRY REVIEW, then who would be surprised to find out that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants to save all the smokers lives by pricing this addictive LEGAL product out of their reach.

Yesterday in yet another lame attempt to divert public attention from his very embarrassing back flip on his all important Emissions Trading Scheme, Rudd has given the green light to tobacco retailers to put up the average price of a pack of smokes by as much as twenty five percent.

Not to mention the ever growing booze tax hikes, yet another success story in the battle to stop people from drinking to excess!?!

To add insult to injury he, Rudd, then has the gall to state that this tax hike is to provide for the 5 billion dollar BRIBE that he needs for the states to roll over and allow the federal overlords to take not only control of the health system but also swipe a third of the GST revenue that the states need to make any improvements possible.

Granted the current state governments couldn't before and cannot now fix this basket case of a public health service, which leads to another question for the delusional PM: "How the hell does Rudd plan to make such miraculous reforms work?" I have yet to see any actual working plan.

Cynically, and I believe justifiably, Rudd is bluffing and pandering and showboating again and once again is displaying that he has so much contempt for the Australian public that he believes that we will continue to follow his Pied Piper's attempt to lead us over the cliff of a socialist new order.

All that this empty-suited socialist has done in the last 24 hours is to force millions of smokers to go out last night and stockpile as many smokes as they could afford to buy. One in a thousand may use the price rise as a leverage to quit but the reality is that this will do nothing more than further alienate Rudd from his traditional base, the working class family. And if the memories are strong and long enough to last until the next federal election, which I predict will be sometime around late June early July, then Rudd may have just done the Conservative opposition the biggest favour this country could ever ask.

Still it is tough if you smoke, because now the extra money that you needed for your private health care or your kids' education or just the basics of life is no longer there because the addiction to nicotine is comparable to an addiction to heroin: thus the smokes will always take priority. How can this man get dressed in the morning? He truly hasn't thought about any of this!